April 28th, 2016

Cask Release Tuesday

For PBE 2015 Ryan from Beer Without Borders popped down to The Laboratory in Lincoln and whipped up a couple of special brews.
One of these was an an 8.75% Imperial Horchata Coffee Porter succintly named: Wake Up! Time To Die! (Tears...in Rain Vol.2).
A reminder, Horchata is a Mexican dessert drink featuring cinnamon & vanilla.

Following PBE there was a small 20L cask left, untapped. Ryan thought it would be interesting to see how the beer ages, so it's been sitting undisturbed at the BwB coolstore for six months.

Now it is time to find out the results of the aging. Considering it is a strong, dark, spiced beer we're guessing a bit of time would have integrated the beer nicely.

We'll be tapping this final cask at 5pm Tuesday and serving from handpump.

Live in the Lounge: Reuben Bradley's Death Hos

Be a classy bogan this Saturday, with Reuben Bradley and the Death Hos.
They'll be taking the music of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Steely Dan and Band of Gypsies then stretching it apart and improvising with it.

Come along anc check out Daniel Hayles on Keys, Nick Tipping on Bass and Reuben Bradley on Drums.

They'll be kicking off at 9pm Saturday, with  no door fee.

Too Many Fresh Hops

Whoopsie, we ordered more fresh hopped beers than we have taps again!

Next Friday's fresh hop takeover (featuring Ramen Shop pop up!) got a little bigger this week. We managed to secure kegs of ParrotDog's fresh hopped sour "Moa" and Webb St Brewing's Nelson Sauvin hopped vienna lager "Freudian Sip".

So now from Midday on Friday May 6th we'll be serving:
- Eagle Brewing Fresh Hopped SIPA
- Hop Federation/Epic Fresh Hopped Sarah IPA
- Hop Federation Fresh Hopped XPA
- Webb St Brewery Freudian Sip
- Sprig & Fern Harvest Pilsner
- Panhead Fresh Hopped Vandal
- 8 Wired Fresh Hopwired
- Wild & Woolly Mulligan Sour
- Mike's Hopstock & Two Smoking Barrels
- Kereru Fresh Hop Special Bitter
- Twisted Hop/Laboratory Wet Weekend Fresh Hopped Motueka IPA

When something runs out we'll be rotating on theParrotDog Moa and North End Forty South - it might just turn into a fresh hop weekend.

Reinheitsgebollocks

A week ago, the German beer purity law of 1516 aka "Reinheitsgebot" had it's 500th birthday.

For many who continue to support this outdated legislation it was a time to celebrate. But for Germany's budding innovative beer scene it was a time to protest.

Back in 1516 the Reinheitsgebot was implemented to ensure that grains like wheat and rye were used to make bread, not beer. It stated brewers can only use barley, hops and water.
It has since been modified to allow for yeast (after its dicovery) and then to allow wheat (though only in top fermenting beers for some reason), and recently it was changed again to allow a wider variety of malts and sugars.

If you're a brewer in Germany wanting to make a beer with any adjunct that doesn't comply with the Reinheitsgebot, you can't call it beer. So enjoy making "malted beverages with natural flavours".

What makes this even more of a raw deal is that the same rules don't apply to imported beers, so from the beginning Germany's more adventurous brewers are on an uneven playing field.

We're about to see two of these innovative German brewers malted beverages make their way to New Zealand for the first time, with the arrival of Freigeist Bierkultur and The Monarchy.
The shipment didn't quite make it in time for the official anniversary protest event, but we're having our own a couple weeks late.

On Friday May 13th we'll be launching Freigeist and The Monarchy on tap and in bottles, with support from Tiamana who has made a special "malted beverage" as well.

Quince gose? Rhubarb gose? How about a salted raspberry porter or a 10% sour hoppy altbier. We'll also have special German snacks available, so come on down and taste the rebellion on Friday May the 13th. That's just two weeks away!